 Hello my darling extraterrestrials, I am Kim, this is Dustmoats and Velikor, and I am back from Africa! I have successfully blessed the rains down, and it may seem to some that I have time traveled because it's been a month since I filmed my last video. Also a big hello to my new subscribers, hi guys! Looking forward to talking with you about books? Speaking of which, today we are talking about Spinning Silver by Naomi Novik. This book is clever and intricate and absolutely chock-full of rich and interesting female characters. The guys do okay too, but the girls, oh my god! Essentially this is the story of three young women who claim themselves, despite fathers and husbands who would spend them like silver. I am going to get a little spoiler-y at the end, nothing earth-shaking, but if you don't like your summaries to include anything after the first quarter of the book, maybe don't watch that part, um, I get a little gushy at the end of this one. I know because I wrote it ahead of time, because otherwise I would just stand here going, but Spinning Silver, guys! But don't worry, I will let you know when that's about to happen. Okay, here we go. Miriam is the daughter of the town money lender who is really very good at lending money and absolutely terrible at collecting it. When Miriam's mother gets sick, Miriam says enough is enough and takes her father's book and goes and knocks on her first door, and after that she's the town money lender. But when the steric lord, a faith-people of the frozen north, hears her boast that she can turn silver into gold, he challenges her to three tasks, with everyone she loves at stake if she fails. Wanda is the daughter of a drunk, an abusive drunk who owes Miriam's father quite a lot of money. When Miriam comes to collect, he cannot pay, so Miriam arranges that Wanda come and serve at her mother's house as a maid. Wanda knows this is an opportunity to bring food into an empty larder to feed her growing brothers, but also to save enough money to escape. Idina is the daughter of the Duke by his first wife, not pretty enough to make a good match and smart enough to know it. But when Miriam arrives to sell a beautifully wrought silver ring to the Duke, Idina knows she can sense that her fate is about to change. Each young woman touches magic in her life, though she may not know it. Each young woman is tested, and each young woman must outwork and outwit those who would seek to use her for their own gains. I love this book. I gotta say it. I love this book. Each time you think you know how it's going to end, you're wrong. You're just wrong. Seriously, there's like eight books worth of plot in this book. Wordplay and wit are the currency of this world, and being too poor or too rich can get you in a lot of trouble. Also, subtle uses of classic fairy stories abound. Threes, bargaining, the house that provides whatever you need, probably a lot more that are very Russian, and I wouldn't have noticed offhand because I'm not Russian. Okay, this is where we're gonna start getting spoilery, so just this is your warning. If you have not read this book, stop here, read it, and then come back and freak out with me. We are officially talking about things that happen after the first quarter of the book passes. By the way, before that quarter happens, there's already one moment where you think you know how the book is going to end, but then the book is another 300 pages long, and you're just like, anyway, okay, I'm paying attention. I love how the relationship between Miriam and the Steric Lord progresses, because it doesn't start as a relationship in so much as it starts as a kidnapping, very beauty in the beast style. The tables are constantly turning, the ground underneath her very feet is shifting, and every time she beats him at his own game, he has to take a step back and reconsider her. He fell in love while she was planning to kill him and escape, and when she wins, and when she wins, he has to say, you were right to arrange this end, because he undervalued her at every turn, and she was right to value her freedom higher than his kingdom and his life. He bargained falsely. According to his own rules of his own world, she beat him at the game that he had been forcing her to play, even though she didn't know she was playing. So much respect for Miriam. And then Irina and the Sars relationship is a very complicated game involving so many players, including the demon that is cohabitating his skin. Irina curates the love of the people to safeguard herself in public, and then is conveniently and confoundingly missing when it's time to be alone with her husband and his demon. The demon of course wants to eat her. Like you do. So she busts out this incredible mind that she has been hiding her whole life to bargain with the demon, while simultaneously and in secret preparing her kingdom for several possible outcomes, including the death of her husband, Bazaar. And then Wanda. Wanda doesn't have a romantic plotline in this book, which I love. Wanda gets a vassal type role. She is the sworn ally of Miriam. She takes on Miriam's duties in the house and then Miriam's duties as the money collector when Miriam goes away. And then she's the extra pair of hands and the iron will necessary to complete a test with gruesome magical consequences. She feels she owes Miriam and her family a debt that she can never repay. They don't see it like that. They see her as one of their own. Wanda gets to learn to stand up for herself. She escapes from her father. She flies her brothers to freedom. And she gets a new found family. And I think that's just so wonderful. Guys, I'm just wounding just thinking about this book. It's been a month. It's only been a month and I want to read it again. If you are looking for a Russian folktale fantasy where a young woman comes into her own or if you've just finished Bear and the Nightingale by Catherine Arden and you want more read spinning silver by Naomi Novik, I cannot recommend it enough. And then come talk to me and tell me what you thought. A vienta.